Holiday Toys For Tweens At Target: Furby

Yes, that season is again upon us, folks! And let’s be honest: the sooner you begin organizing that holiday shopping list, the less certifiably insane you’re likely to be in just a few short weeks, when the REAL Holiday Shopping Crunch begins.

With that in mind, I’m here to help make things a little easier for those of you with tweens — especially tween girls. Being in possession of one of those myself, I think I have a fair amount of insight into Tween Girl tastes, and with some input from my daughter I intend to share what I know over the next few weeks, to make your holiday shopping easier.

I’d never before encountered the previous iterations of Furby, and so I was genuinely curious about what the Furby of 2012 would be like. Surely with all the advancements in technology in recent years the latest version of this toy would have amazing advanced features — a kind of next-level toy artificial intelligence that would move us one step closer to humanity being overthrown by robot masters. Well I’m here to report that Furby did not disappoint.

Just what does a Furby do? Well a lot, actually. This thing has the capacity to actually LEARN language and behavior, and over time picks up both from its owner.

Feed your Furby, speak to it, tickle it, play music for it and shake, tilt or turn it upside down. But be warned, how you treat your Furby will shape its personality! Comes with a free app your can download for the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone that’ll help you translate Furbish, to virtually feed your Furby and other interactive features.

Crazyness, right?

My daughter immediately downloaded the Furby app to her iPod Touch and began feeding “Coco” — what her Furby named itself (yes, NAMED ITSELF) — all manner of virtual foodstuffs, noting that Coco responded particularly well to chocolate, fortune cookies, and cotton candy. Coco’s sugar crash is going to be EPIC, y’all.

Several days later, she’s still truly enthralled with Furby, treating it more like a real pet than a toy. And in that span of time, I’ve watched Coco cycle through several personalities — from something like a tiny furry viking to a Japanese pop star to what can only be described as a giggling alien toddler — with rapt fascination. Oh, and it’s also communicating more and more in English. Which, depending on how you look at it, is either a fun, positive development, or just emblematic of us moving one step closer to our inevitable enslavement by the artificial intelligences we humans ourselves created. HAS OLD SCHOOL SCIENCE FICTION HYSTERIA TAUGHT US NOTHING, PEOPLE?

But all kidding aside, I for one welcome our robot overlords with open arms… so long as they’re all as fuzzy, adorable, and fun as Furbies.

A big thanks to Target for sponsoring this campaign. Click here to see more of the discussion.

Do you know a deserving family, school, or charity this holiday season? We’re giving away one grand set of 20 toys from Target, including those mentioned in this post! To nominate, simply comment and tell us why you’ve selected them!

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